Quiet Fire Weekend Meet Program
A busy weekend of track and field as usual lots of smiling faces and big expectations.
The concession stand crew ready to serve starting with Hot Chocolate 8am
I guess I must be a little tired after the weekend cause this is the second post I have written now, because I accidently ERASED the first.It was almost done too**&^*^%$&% darn.. Oh well Let me start again.
6:30am Saturday Morning QF parents began rolling into the parking lot geering up fora busy day of activity and work. Once again I worked a the registration table with TrackMom extraordinaire Bridgette. She is a joy to work with and I am learning from the inside out just how the table is supposed to be run.
Bridgette is a self proclaimed “L.A. Jet For Life” with a heart for all kids and service to youth track and field. her child a former LA jet and St Mary’s High School coached by the co- founder of QF coach King and now in college.
Brigette volunteers for both teams regularly and is a shining example of how inter-team collaboration can yield big dividends for all involved. We talked a lot about service to others and why we are there week in and out with our children. So much was talked about I am going to write a post on it how we all can be part of the solution in making youth track and field experience better.
It takes so many helpful hands to make a track meet sucessful.I wasn’t able to get everyone’s picture but I grab a few as I took a picture break a few times over the weekend. I have so many little stories about working at the registration desk I will share them over time and hopefully they will inspire you and your team to provide the best service to the kids in your area.
My favorite story of the weekend is about a little boy named Jimmy. Jimmy found a Game Boy during the meet and although I could tell Jimmy wanted to keep it he willling turned it in and when the owner came to pick it up. His smile was priceless.. I had taken a picture of Jimmy but I some how erased it intransition .If Jimmy’s mom is reading ,send me another one or stop me at the next meet so I can grab another one of this great kid.
Which brings me to my first ”HOT FIRE” Take Home Point:
PEOPLE.PEOPLE, PEOPLE We have lost and found for a reason please check it,just in case, before you leave the track..It won’t hurt it may save you a little anguish andcash in replacement. We had two boxes with 6 pair of spikes all sizes from 2 girls through 14 men’s some almost like new…ohh and lots of clothing and hats.those things wee taken to donation and the trash once the meet was completely cleaned up. Unfortunately I was only able to give back 2 items all day to people who left or lost them.The phones and Blackberrys were not returned.This is always disturbing to me ,but such is life..
Many people had the same complaint of all the complaints I heard which were surpringly very few.
The Good the Bad and the UglyThe good.
The Good. Many people complemented the team on the great meet finishing 90% of the races well before 3 pm on Sunday. A good meet over all with few points of contention enjoyable tasty food. good variety even T-shirts to mark the special occasion team. FAT timing,with a competent staff of very hard working people.
Bathrooms that were pretty good over all (just a little messy)
The Bad..The Parking.
I spoke to the Head Coach of the School myself and the parking charge of 3 dollars was for her track ream NOT OURS…
QF recieved no funds from the gate. I know some will simply want to believe the worst but it’s not true.These tough economic times require a change inthe way business is done,So the school decided to charge after they saw the business savvy in such descision.
The warm -up area was lacking. The school not allowing an adequet location for hte athltes to warm up but I guess nothing is perfect.
The Ugly
There’s enough fault to go around but there was a team that kinda had a bad day and the combination of their errors and the host teams errors and some that couldn’t be helped it made for a little friction toward the end of the meet. I see both sides of the misunderstandings and mistakes and I conclude that cooler heads between the parties could have easily remeded the issues at hand. HOT FIRE Take Home point CAN WE SAY CONFLICT RESOLUTION
In one specific case I was involved and to the coaches credit he apologized when he found out that he was wrong. I was very impressed that he apologized and I was totally not offended. I get wanting the best for the kids in your charge.
As for the competition it was great and many athletes achieved A PR this weekend. See Results Here!
Great meet! I’m sorry but we didn’t come to Sunday’s meet but I would like to send you the money for a copy of Runners Take your Mark. Note: I will be at Saturdays meet and could purchase than as well. Do you plan to attend?